"Reclaiming December" will be the topic presented by panelists Paul McCraw, Fleming El-Amin, Wilda Spalding, and Barry Geller at the Triad AU Chapter event on Tuesday, December 16, at the Polo Recreation Center, from 7:00-8:30 PM.

During the weeks following Thanksgiving, the commercial exploitation of Christmas is relentless and inescapable. Many Americans, including Christians, end up feeling disrespected, and our rich cultural heritage gets lost amidst a plethora of Christmas trees, Santa Clauses, and midnight bargains. Read more

It’s almost Christmas, and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) isn’t going to let you forget it. In a special resolution introduced Wednesday, the congressman celebrated his idea of the reason for the season — and condemned church/state separation advocates in the process. (Lamborn introduces the resolution every year.)

“We give thanks for Jesus’ message of love and peace and remember the sacrifice He made for us all. It is a season of giving, of love, and of joy,” he said. Read more

Delaware’s Indian River School District (IRSD) is prepared to vote on new health textbooks this month. And if board member Shaun Fink gets his way, the books will exclude any mention of LGBT individuals. He’s also proposed excluding lessons on HIV/AIDS and contraception in favor of promoting an abstinence-only approach to sex education.Read more

Governments – particularly those of the local variety – are supposed to be inclusive toward all citizens they serve. But some members of a Florida city council are clearly unaware of this responsibility, since they felt it was appropriate to walk out of a recent meeting right before an atheist was to deliver a message. Read more

Eight states still have provisions in their constitutions that either bar atheists outright from holding public office or require people to believe certain things about God and religion before they can be elected.

It seems creationists are running out of ways to undermine evolution after a federal judge tossed a lawsuit that had sought to ban evolution from public school classrooms on the grounds that it promotes atheism. Read more

This morning, Michigan’s House Judiciary Committee discussed and voted out Speaker Jase Bolger’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bill, HB 5958. Some members of the committee offered amendments, including one that would have prohibited the bill from being used to violate anti-discrimination or civil rights laws in Michigan, but no amendments were adopted. Read more